The goal of this article is to advance the literature on nonprofit organizational adaptation by assessing the factors that significantly contribute to the entry and exit of human service organizations in metropolitan areas. More specifically, this study uses nonprofit, economic and demographic data and information on welfare reform implementation patterns to examine the causes of the formation and deaths of groups in the nonprofit human service sector from 1992 to 1996. This time frame marked the widespread implementation of welfare reform under the federal Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) waiver program. This study found that organizational size, age, and service activities are the key determinants in the failure of human service nonprofits, whereas environmental factors such as AFDC waiver implementation relate to the widespread formation of nonprofit providers.

Objective. Tied to the notion that faith-related organizations provide a fresh alternative to secular social service nonprofits, the Bush Administration has proposed several controversial initiatives to increase the involvement of faith-based groups in addressing poverty in the United States. However, there is little empirical evidence on how these religious organizations raise or expend their resources or on how they differ from secular providers. Methods. Using descriptive and multivariate statistics, this article aims to add clarity to the debate over faith-based involvement in social service provision by examining the organizational and financial characteristics of more than 2,000 large, religious and secular human service providers. Results. The chief finding is that while faith-related and secular human services group have nearly identical expenditure patterns, they rely on different types of revenue to fund their services. Faith-based groups are significantly more likely than secular nonprofits to depend on donor contributions, while secular groups are substantially more inclined to rely on government grants and contracts. Conclusions. Despite the strong fiscal health of faith-related providers, their heavy dependence on donor contributions raises important questions regarding the utility of faith-based policy initiatives.

The misuse of prescription drugs by teens in the United States is a growing public health problem. This article provides a systematic synthesis of multiple strands of literature to recommend effective prevention methods. Using a social-ecological framework, we review the scope of the problem of prescription drug use among teens. Then, we analyze the multiple factors that may influence teen knowledge and attitudes toward prescription drugs and discuss the important challenges related to the construction of effective prevention programs. Finally, we provide recommendations for practice that attempt to overcome these challenges.

In January 1994, the United Way of the National Capital Area announced significant changes in its methods of funds distribution. These structural shifts in the Washington, D.C.-area United Way campaign created an environment of increased fiscal and organizational pressure for nonprofits as many scrambled to make up lost ground. This article reports the findings of a survey sent to 258 D.C.-area nonprofit service providers. The survey was designed to determine how nonprofits adapted to changes in their funding environment associated with changes in the United Way campaign. Half of the groups surveyed experienced moderate or large cuts in the amount of funds they received through the United Way. Yet, a majority of the organizations that experienced cuts were able to adapt in ways that allowed them to maintain service levels. A number of these adaptations involved attempts to manage the environment in a manner consistent with resource dependency theory.Nonprofit charitable organizations have traditionally played an important role in providing social services to needy populations in the United States. Before the advent of extensive government spending on social services, private philanthropies provided funds for schools, hospitals, charity to the poor, and so on. As increasing numbers of citizens demanded government responsibility for these social services, government provision increased (Weisbrod, 1986). But nonprofits did not disappear from the scene, and they continue to provide necessary and supplementary services. State and local governments often contract with nonprofits to provide social services. As a result, government support of nonprofit service agencies has expanded dramatically in the

Promotores are community lay health workers, who provide outreach and services to Latinos. Little research on the promotores programs exists and the focus of this article is to identify the challenges faced by community-based nonprofits when implementing promotores programs. To explore this type of program telephone interviews were conducted with ten promotores academic experts and nonprofit executives. The results suggest that implementation challenges fall into three major categories: the lack of standardized information on promotores programs, labor issues, and organizational costs. Future recommendations are made which highlight promotores recruitment and retention strategies, and the development of a clearinghouse of programmatic implementation information for community-based nonprofits.